Crap...

Last weekend I finally got around to hanging our front porch swing. When my Grandfather died last February and the daughters were getting ready to sell his house, they gave Heather and me the porch swing from his house. We were the only folks in the family with a front porch and had a use for it. I took it to my sister's father-in-law and he refinished the swing and painted it white to match our porch. Unfortunately, the swing has been sitting on the porch floor since last August because of one reason or another and was never hung. So, this past weekend, I was finally able to make the time, buy the parts and get it hung. To start off, just about every piece I bought to hang the swing had to be bent, stretched, ground or cut to work, but I was finally able to get it all together. Then, it was on to hanging it. The right side (as you look at it) went up great and it was sturdy. When I worked on the left side, however, it didn't feel near as sturdy and it felt like only a thin piece of wood was all that was up there when I drilled the pilot hole for the eye bolts. I decided to try my luck and hang the swing there anyway. After it was hung, I sat in the middle of the swing and it felt fine. I swung in it for a little while and had no problems. The left side still bugged me, but I guess it was going to hold. I told Heather later that evening, that some time the next day, we both ought to sit in it to make sure it was going to hold.

The next day, I was walking the dog and decided to sit in the swing again. Ripley jumped up in the swing and went to the right side, so I sat on the left. I think it held about 7 nano-seconds. The whole left side ceiling of the porch above the swing came crashing down while the swing and my butt crashed to the floor. After I moved the vinyl siding off my head, I looked up to see what had happened. When I installed the eye bolt, I missed the stud and put it in a sheet of plywood that was only about 8 inches wide. That plywood was then nailed by two nails into each stud for the entire 8 foot length of the plywood. When I sat down, the eye bolt stayed in the plywood, but the plywood came off the studs it was nailed on. As it ripped down, it pulled the vinyl siding down with it and made a big mess of the whole area. On the bright side, I can now see the studs I need to put the eye bolts into. I just need to get some extra time and an extra set of hands to help me get the vinyl back together and nail everything back up.

Now I remember why I never started that construction company....